Thesis ~ The Strangest of all Attractors || Ch. 1, Pages 31-38
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PREVIOUS SCENE (Last Present Day scene for Chapter one)
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Mary-Anne woke up to the sound of crickets chirping above her. Her eyes opened to a yellow-orange afternoon sky, set behind a circular, open pit and the darkness that surrounded her.
How long was I out, she wondered.
She had to have been out for a while. It was late afternoon now.
In all this time, no one came out to search for her?
Mary attempted to stand up. She suddenly found the unbearable pain in her right foot. She cried out in distress. Tears streamed down her face.
She looked down and saw that her foot was sprained. It was all swelled up and throbbing with pain. Nonetheless, she struggled to pull herself up, using the tree roots that jutted out from the surrounding stone walls.
After she finally stood up on her good foot, Mary looked around her.
At first glance, it appeared she fell down a well, but the bottom was far too wide. It didn’t go nearly as deep into the ground as most wells did. She fell only less than six or seven feet.
Still, it would be hard to crawl out even if she hadn’t sprained her foot. The stone walls were built in an igloo shape, arching up to the broken ceiling. Many roots hung from above. It was difficult to tell if the roots were strong enough to hold her weight. She didn’t want to take any chances with this sprained foot.
Mary decided not to risk climbing the roots. Instead, she shouted up to the world above her. Perhaps somebody was close enough to hear.
“Hello! Is there anyone out there? Help!”
The only thing that answered was the wind and the quiet chorus of crickets. There was the sound of a bird cawing in the distance.
There wasn’t a soul close enough.
This wasn’t good. She was going to be stuck in this pit until someone came searching for her. There was no telling long would that would take.
With her throbbing foot raised slightly above the ground, Mary hobbled to the opposite side of the pit to see if there was any way of climbing out. Just before she reached the wall, Mary paused herself.
She squinted through the darkness off to her left.
The corner of her eye caught something.
It was an archway – an underground opening or passageway. It was set far back, away from the reach of the afternoon sunlight, but not far enough to be unable to see it’s dim outline.
Mary slowly lowered herself to the ground. She stared intently at the narrow opening.
The pitch darkness inside was too baleful, too sinister, blatantly proscribing any notion of taking a closer look.
This may had been a way out. It wasn’t likely, but there was a chance.
No. That’s ridiculous. she said to herself. She couldn’t do it. It was too dark in there and Mary was in no mood to walk around.
She hated the dark. The only thing she hated more was being in a state of helplessness.
She kept thinking it over. Regardless, she refused to enter.
Mary-Anne remained on the ground, with her eyes closed. She attempted to rebuke any thoughts of going in.
She tightly crouched herself within the center of this pit. Mary wasn’t going anywhere.
Within these still, silent moments, Mary became aware of something. There was a sound coming from deep within that black opening in front of her. It was the steady sound of dripping water.
Drip...drip...drip...
She forced herself to pay no attention to it. It was only water.
After a while, it sounded as if the dripping noise was getting louder and more prevalent. The sound itself was coming closer.
Mary eyes shot open. She clenched her fists. She stared intently at the dark.
There was no reason why the sound was getting louder.
Drip...drip...drip...
Is it just becoming more dominant in my mind, she wondered.
The quieter the world above became, the more this sound took it’s place.
Once again, Mary felt compelled to enter the opening. This steady hypnotic sound, as dreadful as it was, seemed to beckon to her.
It wouldn’t hurt to take a gander, thought Mary.
She prepared to stand back up by crawling off to the side. Holding onto a nearby tree root, she pulled herself upwards. Her back rubbed up against the worn rock and soiled wall.
After getting herself up, Mary made her way to the gaping black void. She nearly tripped over a sheet of rock sticking out of the ground. She grabbed onto the edge of the opening to keep herself from loosing balance.
It took a moment for her eyes to adjust. The darkness was thick. As soon as she could see better, Mary noticed something.
Mary’s heart begin to pump furiously in her chest.
There was a blue light. It was faint. It came form somewhere deep inside. It glowed, unblinking, appearing as the light of an angel.
Who would have the certainty to say it wasn’t the Devil or Hades, Mary wondered to herself.
Mary stood poised at the foreboding entryway. Her thoughts madly raced around in circles.
That light cannot be real, she thought. It was her imagination. It had to be.
She closed her eyes and turned her head away, straining to erase the sight from her vision! Turning back and studying the scene closely, she could see that the light was reflecting off a stone wall that curved off sharply to the left.
Drip...drip...drip...
The dripping sound continued to echo from deep inside, somewhere off to the right. It was an annoyance now. It was nauseating, in fact! That horrific sound continued to fill her mind with every rhythmic drop.
This was such a miserable situation, but Mary continued to hold herself upwards. She was unwilling to give in. She had to do this. It was self-evident at this point.
If this is the will of God who has shown me this path, then I must follow, she thought submissively.
Mary stepped through the narrow opening. The oppressive, stiff dankness enclosed around her. Looking back, Mary could see the sunlight, shinning down through the hole above. She already missed it’s warmth.
She turned back towards the blue light. With fear running through her veins, Mary started forward.
Off somewhere within in the dark were these strange rustling sounds, almost like paper being shuffled. Mary couldn’t place the location of the sound for the life of her. All he had in this place were her ears.
The sound of a stone dropping made her jump and cower against the left wall. Her body felt fragile. She was shaking as if freezing to death. No doubt the frigid bitterness of fear had taken her.
Mary slowly began to back out. Her hand gripped hard on a stone jutting out from the left wall. She realized these stones were eroded and loose. The place had been left abandoned a long time ago. How long was unknown. It had to have been years – maybe centuries! It wouldn’t had been any surprise to see this place fall apart, given the thought.
This didn’t make going in here any better of an idea.
Despite all this weighing heavily in her mind, Mary continued forward. She considered the fact she was already halfway there. She felt adventurous enough. Either that or she had lost her mind.
“The lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside the still waters...”
She pushed on, quietly whispering the lord’s prayer to herself. Her right hand clutched her necklace pendant. Her eyes remained fixated on the light that glowed in all it’s beaming presentiment.
“He restoreth my soul. He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will feel no evil – for thou art with me...”
The light was close.
She began to move herself into the beam of the light. It felt like she had been going through this tunnel for ages. Mary moved her head into the light. Her vision was submerged in a sea of blue. Her eyes took a moment to adjust to the light.
Seconds later – Mary put her whole self into the beam.
He panic receded. The fear was gone.
She saw the light was coming from a lantern. It sat on top a small bolder ten feet away in the center of a large circular room. From here, there were other passageways. They stretched off into three opposite directions, heading off into more darkness – but here was this light, so peaceful and warm! The sight of it put Mary at ease, although she wasn’t entirely sure as to why.
She stumbled out from the small tunnel and moved towards the lantern, straining to see what was giving off this much light. Once she reached it, she knelled down and studied it carefully. The lantern’s exterior cage was made with a smooth, dark metal that appeared imperious to the wear of time, unlike the rest of this place. Inside the cage, the object giving off the light looked like a gemstone, uncut and unpolished, but shining as bright as the sun. With caution, she reached for the lantern and picked it up by it’s smooth handle. It weighed less than a pound.
How long can these gems be left to shine, she wondered.
This place was left abandoned long ago, but this precious stone was left behind to burn it’s eternal flame. Almost as if it’s placement was intentional.
How it was made to glow made no matter. It was something to counter the dark within these forgotten halls. That made a world of difference.
Something caught her eye. It appeared to be a large, flat piece of weathered rock, propped up on the wall directly in front of her.
There was many symbols etched upon it’s flat surface. With lantern in hand, Mary made her way to the stone and lowered herself to it’s worn, chipped surface. There were strange symbols and lines crudely carved into the surface of the rock. What caught her attention was the large symbol situated on the lower, right-hand side. It looked like a seal, standing out gracefully, as if authenticating this document.
It was clear in Mary’s mind that what she was looking at was an ancient written language. She had seen plenty of old written languages in many a weathered, dusty book. She didn’t know this one. It wasn’t from the Indians; their tales and myths were handed down verbally, and there was no written form of their languages, or at least not one that Mary was aware of.
She wondered if it’s message was a warning for the one who would happen to stumble upon this place. Perhaps it was only a word of welcome.
Whatever this tablet said, it only replaced Mary’s fazed composure with a sense of inquisitiveness. She didn’t feel frightened by the darkness anymore. In fact, Mary felt excited to go off and explore the depths of these ancient dwellings.
She stepped away from the tablet, trailing slowly to the left, striving to see as far as she could through the dark in front of her. Up ahead, she could barely make out a large object resting on the left side of the high wall. Mary continued to drag herself closer and closer to the object. It looked like a gigantic wheel.
Suddenly, she stopped and froze herself.
“Did I just hear my name?” she asked herself.
Everything down here was silent, save for the occasional noise of stone bricks falling from the ceiling above and smashing on the floor.
“Mary-Anne...”
There it was again. This time she knew where it was coming from.
With glee, Mary quickly dragged herself back to the small tunnel and yelled as loud as she could down the corridor.
“Hello! I’m in here! I’m in here!”
She continued to drag herself as fast as she could back down the tunnel. She caught a brief glimpse of a series of rooms to the left of her. There were wooden tables in there and stacks of old, decaying parchments.
Mary burst out of the passageway, into the late afternoon sunlight. A head was peering down at Mary, who was now crawling around on the floor after tripping over the same sheet of rock she tripped over earlier.
“Mary! How in god’s name you dig yourself a hole this deep?”
“Melody! I fell down here! I can’t crawl out! Please! Get me out!”
“I can reach you if you stand up! Come on! Grab my hand!”
With the last of her strength, she brought herself up and reached as high as she could for Melody’s hand.
“Hang on! I have you!” cried out Melody as she continued to pull her up.
At last, Melody managed to pull Mary out. The two gasped for air, collapsing back into the field of wheat.
“How long were you down there?” asked Melody.
“Far too long! I didn’t think anyone would find me!”
“What is that?”
Melody pointed to the strange lantern Mary found. Mary looked and was surprised to see the light from the gem was all but extinguished. It was now glowing faintly. Mary moved her hand over the gem to protect it from the rays of the sun. Like day and night, it lit up again. Mary moved her hand away and the light dimmed once more.
Melody Catratt looked on with astonishment. “Where did you get that?” she asked.
“Down there – Melody! There are tunnels and things! Strange stones and rooms – resting right below our feet! That’s where I got the lantern!”
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NEXT SCENE (Coming soon)
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